Perfection in the Picture
by shego219
Summary: Set during X-M:FC; The CIA wants pictures of the "First Class" mutants to keep on file. Charles interprets this request as an opportunity for a family photo! No one else is particularly happy about it. Charles/Erik outcome
1. Chapter 1

**Perfection in the Picture**

**Summary:** It was Saturday morning and here Erik was, lying in bed with too many unanswered questions. Why did the kids mean so much to Charles? Didn't Charles already have a family? Why was Charles _really_ making them go through with this? And how did they end up fucking again? Would Charles really manipulate him into bed to get a group photo?

**Pairing(s)**: Charles/Erik with possible hints of Hank/Raven

**A/N**: Written for prompt on the "1st Class Kink" meme & updated simultaneously; I was really trying to write a short one-shot, but by the time my ideas slowed down the gang had gone through half a roll of film. Sorry if it's a total fail - I don't come from a huge, shenanigan-prone family like the X-Men.

Erik woke up alone in Charles's bed with a splitting headache.

_Well this is interesting_, he mused, rolling over to take up more space. The sheets on the other half were cool, smooth. Charles had been awake and gone for a while now. To say this was how Erik wanted to start his already stress-filled day would have been a blatant lie. He only hoped once he caught up to Charles the younger man wouldn't be a complete basket case.

The ordeal had started Thursday night after the CIA board meeting about Shaw, when Moira had been escorting them back to check up on the new recruits, the "kids," as Charles was already calling them.

"…And since the forces aren't cleared to leave for the USSR until Sunday," Moira was saying when Erik's mind finally stopped wandering, when he stopped imagining Shaw's imminent capture (and torture) at his hand, "I was wondering what your plans were for Friday or Saturday?"

Erik rolled his eyes and fell back a few paces. Of course she was asking Charles out in a time of crisis. Charles seemed to have that effect on people.

"Nothing," Charles replied, "why do you ask?"

"The CIA is putting together files on the mutants and they asked me to get photographs of everyone for inclusion," Moira said. "I know, I tried to tell them how invasive that was of your privacy but –"

"One file or many separate files?" Charles interrupted.

Moira blinked a few times in shock before responding. "Right now it's just one big file on all the mutants. There aren't enough of you to warrant an entire filing section."

"Excellent!" Charles bubbled. "Since it's for one file, we can take one photo. I was just thinking it would be nice if we could take one a big group picture, sort of a family photo opportunity, with all the kids."

"Um," Moira said, "I don't think that's quite what my supers had in mind."

"Did they specify what they had in mind?" Charles challenged.

"Well, no, but –" Moira sighed. "Fine, but I want no part of this."

"Besides taking it for us," Charles added, causing the American agent to glare at him.

Erik opened his mouth, prepared to opt out along with Moira, but caught the way Charles was now staring at him, an ungodly amount of love and hope shining in his blue eyes.

It wasn't a secret that Charles and Erik admired each other - as intellectuals, as mutants, and (as much as Erik tried to deny it) as lovers. Hell, the CIA had even given them a shared room (albeit with two beds) separate from the new recruits. It bothered Erik that people assumed he and Charles were more than colleagues, but they assumed correctly.

His first night at the CIA base, after Charles had talked him out of leaving, they had slept together. It had been fast, rough, and hazy but memorable enough to leave Erik wanting more.

There had been several more memorable incidents on their mutant-finding road trip, both men swearing it meant nothing. Erik knew it wasn't love, but if he wasn't careful it could very well end up there.

Erik simply nodded, and Charles beamed back. "Brilliant!" he said, and the discussion was dropped.

The subject was broached again that night during their third game of chess, after both men had sufficiently cooled off after finding the "children" goofing off and intentionally destroying CIA property.

"Really Charles," Erik said, causing the young professor to look up from the black and white board. "I can't understand why you want this photo so badly. Save for Raven, these _kids_ have been a part of your life for less than a week," he reasoned, wincing at how paternal he was starting to sound.

Charles turned his gaze back to the game, brow furrowed in concentration. "I was thinking of starting a school for mutants once the government backs off a bit. I thought it would be neat to have an inaugural portrait, some way to commemorate the first class if things work out." He looked up at Erik with a frown. "Why, are you not in favor of this idea?"

"Of course not," Erik lied, swirling the contents of his scotch tumbler and forgetting to ask Charles which _idea_ he's currently talking about. "I'm just afraid Moira doesn't seem too keen on the idea."

"Moira is just upset she didn't get a nickname," Charles quipped. "Now, if you're in a betting mood – which I sense you are – might I wager that the loser of this next game has to tell the others about Saturday's photo shoot?"

Erik smirked. "Against my better judgment, I accept your challenge."

Friday morning found Erik in the living room facing six stricken teens.

"Talk about cruel and unusual punishment," Armando muttered after Erik finished outlining the plans for Saturday.

Angel stared at him with wounded doe eyes. "Look, we know we messed up last night, but –"

"Can't you talk to Charles, try to make him change his mind?" Raven pleaded.

"Yes, _please_ get us out of this," Alex seconded.

Erik raised an eyebrow mockingly. "And why would I do that when I get such pleasure watching you kids squirm?"

"If it helps, we consider you the cool dad," Sean chimed in.

"And it _is_ almost June," Hank reasoned.

"You WILL listen to your mother, children." Erik commanded with as straight a face as he could muster. "And I expect nothing but your best behavior tomorrow. I will not have you ruining this for Charles."

Armando and Sean snickered. "You lo-ove each other," one of them sing-songed quietly.

"I heard that," Erik growled.

"And if we don't listen to you or Charles?" Angel asked, her chin jutting out defiantly.

Raven turned to the other girl, her eyes narrowed knowingly. "Don't think he's not above brain-washing us all to do it. Or worse – he could guilt as all into doing it."

Of course, Erik made him promise he wouldn't use his control over the kids that night during their chess game.

Charles pretended to consider his friend's request before replying. "Fine, but only if you make them promise not to use their powers either."

Erik let out a frustrated sigh and dropped his head into his hands. "They're _your_ kids," he grumbled half-heartedly, rubbing his temples in an attempt to ward off his impending headache.

"And they'll be leaving soon," Charles said, a small, sad smile playing on his lips.

Erik's eyes snapped up to study the other man. "How do you know?"

Charles smirked and tapped his forehead. "Mind reader, remember? Look, I know you think this is all a bit ridiculous, but just bear with me, Erik. I want to take this opportunity to show the students how much they mean to me."

Smiling slightly, Erik looked up, prepared to tease Charles for his sentimental nature. Instead he found the young professor leaning across the chess board, his face mere inches from Erik's.

"I want to show _you_ how much you mean to me," Charles continued, his voice barely a whisper, before bracing his hands on Erik's knees and closing the distance between their lips.

_It's only a kiss_, Erik told himself as he pulled Charles onto his lap; in response Charles moaned, his tongue entering Erik's mouth. Fighting to maintain control of the situation, Erik drew back and bit Charles's lower lip. With a yelp, the smaller man jerked forward, causing their foreheads to knock together.

Panting, Erik looked up into Charles's lust-filled eyes then carefully brushed a piece of hair away from his face. The kissing resumed, more heated than before, and led to biting and touching and the removal of clothes (Erik remembers losing his belt rather quickly), which led to Erik's current predicament. Mentally, he kicked himself for letting Charles distract him like that.

He sighed again. It was Saturday morning and here Erik was, lying in bed with too many unanswered questions. Why did the kids mean so much to Charles? Erik thought of Raven – didn't Charles already have a family? Why was Charles _really_ making them go through with this? And how did they end up fucking again? Would Charles really manipulate him into bed to get a group photo?

Erik groaned, sitting up to swing his legs over the edge of the bed. Whatever his numerous faults were, Erik sincerely doubted Shaw made the Hellfire Club pose for family portraits.

**To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 2

Forty minutes later, Erik slipped into the living area of the younger mutant's shared living space. Charles hadn't returned while he had gotten dressed and prepared for the day by taking a handful of painkillers, so he began his search for the scattered-brained professor in the most likely place.

"What is everyone wearing for the picture?" Raven screeched from behind her room's closed door as Erik wandered past. "Are we color-coordinating our outfits? Color-complementing our outfits? _Anyone_?"

Erik looked down at his black turtleneck and pressed slacks, not understanding the panic, before pressing on.

"Angel, put more clothes on," he said firmly as he passed the young woman emerging from her room. Angel scowled before turning on her heel and slamming the door.

He passed Armando farther down the hall. Noticing the teen looked bulkier than usual, Erik stopped, turned, and looked him up and down for a full minute. It wasn't just that the young man was wearing a sweater over a polo shirt – no, something else was definitely off.

"Did you grow an exoskeleton?" Erik asked, bewildered.

The young mutant shrugged, tugging at his collar uncomfortably. The fabric rustled against the thin epidermal armor.

"How… no, no," Erik corrected himself, crossing his arms, "_why_? Why is _this_ your natural response to the situation?"

Darwin raised his eyebrows, impersonating Erik's standard reproachful look. "You've never been in a family picture before, have you?" With that, he walked away, leaving Erik to contemplate his question.

Erik found Alex alone in the kitchen, staring at the sink and eating a bowl of corn flakes. Ironically, he seemed to be the most stable of the children today. Erik twisted the faucet into a knot to get his attention. "Have you seen –"

"Professor X just headed back to his quarters," Alex responded, swallowing his cereal as he gestured in the direction Erik has just come from.

Erik sighed. "Of course he did."

Returning to their shared room, Erik found Charles absorbed in choosing which tie to wear. Erik sighed and snatched up the bow tie Charles had been eyeing. "Not this one," he said. "For Gods sakes, you're not even thirty yet."

Charles smirked, looping a yellow-and-blue striped necktie. "I certainly hope the children will be better-behaved today," he remarked absently.

"Yes," Erik agreed acerbically, "since they mean so much to you." Charles stood up, and Erik immediately cornered him, crowding him up against their shared bookshelf. "Since _we_ mean so much to you."

Charles cleared his throat and looked up. "Um, right..." Erik leaned in closer, causing Charles to momentarily lose his train of thought. "About last night, Erik, I –"

_Charles._ Charles heard a female voice broadcasting tersely, like Morse code, from across the complex.

_Moira, what is it?_ he asked, pressing two fingers to his forehead for concentration. He could tell now that she was in an unused conference room and that she wasn't alone, but the thoughts of the person with her were too jumbled to make out.

_Sean. Is. Baked._

"What?" Charles snapped.

Erik raised an eyebrow. "I didn't say anything."

Charles waved him off. "Sorry, not you. I just… need to get something straightened out. Excuse me." With that he rushed out of the room, passing his sister on her way in.

Erik took one look at Raven's frightfully pink hair and grimaced. "No."

With a sigh, Raven changed to her red-haired, blue-skinned self. "I don't know what to do for the picture."

"You mean appearance-wise," Erik inferred. "From what I understand, you can mimic any person's physiology, but since this portrait is for your brother's benefit I would suggest being yourself."

"But which self?" Raven interrupted, running a hand through her hair. "_This_ is my natural state, and I think this picture should be us at our most natural. You know, celebrating our mutations." Erik opened his mouth to reply, but she carried on. "But since the picture is for a file that could be public someday I have no idea how many people will see it, and I don't want to scare anyone…"

She trailed off and looked up at him, her gold eyes pleading.

Erik huffed in annoyance, wishing Charles were back to help out. _Would that we all had your problems, Raven_, he thought. Instead, he snapped, "Then perhaps you should half the pictures as a blonde and half the pictures as a redhead."

Raven reverted to her blonde, human representation. "You're no help," she pouted, and Erik resisted the urge to roll his eyes, wondering why she bothered asking for his opinion if she was only going to ignore it. "Have you talked to Charles about last night?"

Erik frowned. "How do you know about that?"

Raven smirked. "He was waiting for me in the kitchen when I came for breakfast, said it absolutely could not wait."

Erik leaned forward, praying he wouldn't be caught gossiping. "What did he say?"

Raven's response was cut off by Hank, who chose that moment to barrel past the room.

"WHO HID MY FUCKING SHOES?" he bellowed, loud enough for the entire complex to hear.

Erik considered his outburst for a moment before moving toward the door and the distressed young man. "Let's go outside," he said wearily.


	3. Chapter 3

"All right," Erik sighed, appraising the group currently assembled in the living room, "we're missing, Charles, Moira, Sean… what is that?"

Everyone turned to look at Alex, who stood in the kitchen in nice slacks and a dress shirt. In his arms, he cradled a black and white Border collie puppy.

_And here I was thinking Alex would be the most balanced one today_, Erik thought with a grimace.

Hank stopped struggling to put on a pair of Erik's shoes (having recovered none of his own after a forty-five minute search) and looked up. "How long have you been keeping that in your room?" he asked, horrified.

"Tonight with words unspoken, you say that I'm the only one," the radio blared.

"He's not mine," Alex explained, bouncing the dog up and down, "one of Moira's co-workers needed a dog-sitter."

"And they trusted you with it?" Raven teased.

"Why they bring the dog to work in the first place?" Hank countered.

"Because Alex and I tricked him into it," Darwin said.

Erik looked from Armando back to the dog, who was tugging on Alex's shirt sleeve with his teeth. "It's not an 'it,' it's a 'he,'" Alex corrected, "and his name is Chewy. He's our new team mascot."

Angel raised an eyebrow. "We have a team pet?"

"We do now," Raven replied, sounding less than thrilled.

Erik wanted to smack Alex upside the head for choosing now to deal with his abandonment and isolation issues, but fear that the young mutant might snap without the dog stopped him. Once this ordeal was over, he would sit Charles down and have a serious talk about Havok's possibly slipping sanity.

Watching Chewy lick Alex's face from the floor, Hank shook his head. "Nothing like tough men and their puppies," he snarked.

"But will my heart be broken when the night meets the morning sun?" From Alex's arms, Chewy started howling along with the Shirelles.

"Would someone please turn that off?" Erik asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. As much as he wanted to maintain control of the situation, he wasn't sure he could use his powers at the moment without hurting someone.

"Why?" Angel challenged. "It's not bothering anybody." Erik glared back, noting her shirt was still too low-cut for his liking, but kept his mouth shut.

"She's right," Raven defended, shooting Erik an apologetic smile. "It's not like the sound is going to photograph."

"So tell me now, and I won't ask again –"

"_Will you still love me tomorrow_?" Banshee wailed as he wandered in, his voice cracking the glass of the aquarium Raven was leaning against. He managed to take two steps forward into the room before tripping over his untied shoelaces and falling to the ground.

"Off," Erik commanded. Armando obediently cut the radio's power.

Charles ran into the living room with Moira on his heels, both stopping short when they saw Sean rubbing his face on the carpet. "Oh good, you found him," Charles said with a smile. "Is everyone assembled, then?"

* * *

><p>After five minutes spent rearranging the living room with Moira, Charles sat on the couch and frowned. "It's a bit on the small side…" he said, tucking his elbows in so as to take up less space, though Erik noted he still took up about half the sofa.<p>

"Relax," Raven replied, pushing Erik down next to her brother, "it's perfect." She kept walking until she was standing behind the couch between the two men.

Hank shifted uncomfortably. "Uh…"

Charles looked up at him. "Oh, sorry Hank, did you want to stand there?" Behind her brother, Raven morphed into a clone of the young scientist and stuck out her tongue playfully.

"N-no, it's fine," Hank stammered, "I'll just… sit." With that he plopped down on the floor, positioning himself toward the center between Charles and Erik.

Angel was the next to move forward, gingerly sitting on the arm of the couch next to Erik.

"I WANNA SIT THERE!" Sean whined. Wordlessly, Hank reached up and grabbed the indisposed mutant, dragging him to sit on the floor in front of Charles.

Dog in arms, Alex stepped over the other boys to perch on the couch arm beside Charles, leaving Armando to sit on the floor next to Hank at Erik's feet.

With a building sense of dread, Erik eyed the camera clutched in Moira's hand. Before this morning he hadn't considered not having a handle on his powers. Now, with his headache still in full force, Erik couldn't help imagining himself snapping and somehow interfering with the metal mechanisms cased in the camera.

"Look closer," Charles whispered directly into Erik's ear. Jumped in panic, Erik turned to berate Charles for reading his mind but was met with a view of Charles's profile. Following his gaze, Erik looked at the camera again, noting the make and model.

"A Kodak Brownie?"

"It's made almost entirely of plastic," Charles said, "so you needed worry so much about affecting how it works." He squeezed Erik's knee before looking forward again, leaving his hand where it was. Somehow this made Erik feel even more unsettled.

_You __would__ get a British camera_, he added silently for Charles's benefit.

Moira studied the group. "I think it would look better if the dog were in the center," she said after a moment's consideration. "The symmetry is a little off the way it is now."

Alex frowned before passing the squirming puppy to Hank.

Charles leaned in toward Erik. "How long have we had a dog?"

"I don't get what's so attractive about a little ball of fur and –" Hank's rant was cut short by the ball of fur in question, who began licking the young scientist's face.

Moira beamed back at them. "Excellent," she said, bringing the camera up to eye-level. "Now act like you like each other!"

Charles looped his left arm around Erik, who felt his heart judder.

"Smile on three," Moira said firmly. "One… two… three!"

**A/N**: And now, dear readers, the fun begins…


	4. Chapter 4

Take one was ruined by Sean screaming about how bendy his fingers were.

"THEY'RE LIKE," he shouted before his tone turned reverent. "They're like… tubes of toothpaste." Smiling, he held his left hand up to the light, turning it slowly in awe before turning to the rest of the group. "Is anybody else hungry?"

Raven sighed. "He's high, isn't he?"

"As a kite," Charles said matter-of-factly.

"What was your first clue?" Alex grumbled as Sean, who had burst out laughing, buried his face in Hank's shoulder.

"Another take please, Moira?" Charles asked, turning his attention back to the camera. "And no, _children_, I made a promise - no mind-control on Mr. Cassidy." Erik smirked, unaccustomed to seeing Charles so disgruntled. "We'll just do our best to ignore his altered state until it goes away."

The reluctant photographer sighed. "No amount of CIA training prepared me for this," she muttered to herself before raising the camera.

On take two Angel's skimpy shirt plunged lower than any of them thought possible, leading to two different flashes occurring at the same time. Though no stranger to nudity, she froze, slack-jawed in embarrassment, leading Moira and Raven on a mad dash to find a jacket or blanket to cover her up. Charles and Erik looked away politely as the boys (save for Hank, who had been forced by Raven to remove his coat and lend it to Angel) doubled over laughing.

"Do we need…" Sean began, his face redder than his hair. "Do you need…"

"Do you need a moment to find a more suitable top, dear?" Charles finished, turning to Angel. Erik looked at her, too, raising one menacing eyebrow.

To her credit, Angel met both of their gazes. "Yes please."

Take three found Chewy gnawing on Darwin's forearm exoskeleton, a look of confusion and irritation playing on the young man's face.

"Bad Chewy! Bad dog," Alex chastised, not moving from his perch on the couch.

Moira swore in Scottish under her breath. "Why don't we try some without the dog?" she suggested, and despite Alex's protests, Hank obligingly took the puppy out to the courtyard.

Charles leaned across Erik's lap to look the younger mutant in the eyes. "Are you all right there, Darwin?"

Darwin readjusted his sweater sleeve. Already, Erik could see his acquired outer covering disappearing. "Just fine, Professor," Armando replied, giving Erik a knowing look.

It wasn't until the group was congratulating themselves on a job well-done after the fourth picture that Raven spoke up. "Hang on a second," she interrupted with a frown, "I think I blinked."

The rest of the team turned to look at her in horror. "I just…" She trailed off before quickly regaining confidence. "Can we take another one just in case?"

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," Alex muttered into the hand he was hiding his face behind. Sean looked at Alex and bursts out laughing, causing Moira to cock her head and stare at him with concern.

"Are we sure pot is the only thing he's on?" Angel asked.

At the top of take five, Hank started sniffling like he was going to sneeze.

"One…" Moira began the countdown.

Armando turned to the man seated next to him. "Are you OK?" Hank nodded.

"Two…"

Hank sniffed again.

"Moira," Erik said, leaning forward, "could you please –"

"Three!"

"OW OW OW OW OW!" Hank jumped up, hopping like he'd just been burned. Erik stretched an arm across Charles's chest to keep him from standing up as well, though he could sense how much the professor would like to help. "HOLY CHRIST, MY FOOT, MY FOOT… gah!"

"I take it your foot cramped?" Armando asked as Hank ripped off his shoes and threw them into the kitchen.

"Hank," said Raven, coming away from the back of the couch to stop him from pacing. "Hank, look at me." The young man rubbed his flushed face with his hands before Raven pulled them away, bringing them gently to chest level. "I really think you should take the rest of the pictures barefoot. This picture should be us at our most natural, celebrating our mutations. Be who you're meant to be, Hank."

Hank turned to look warily at the rest of the mutants assembled on the couch.

Alex cocked an eyebrow at him. "Don't make her tell you twice, big dog."

Hank nodded silently before turning and finally sneezing into his sleeve.


	5. Chapter 5

As the group reassembled, Erik couldn't help letting his mind wander. It wasn't that this day was turning out to be horrible – he'd had worse – it was mostly just irritating. He was a man of patience, one who spent years calculating and extracting revenge. To think that he could be worn down within a matter of hours by several teenage mutants was just depressing.

Erik shifted to keep his leg from falling asleep and began mapping the fine line between training and tormenting the recruits for when the time came.

_Erik_, Charles projected, _stop thinking so loudly. I don't need to be privy to your juvenile, child-torturing schemes._

_Not my fault_, Erik thought back, vaguely aware that Moira had begun counting again. _I seem to recall you were the mastermind behind this photograph ordeal._

_And short of using my powers or putting them all on leashes_, Charles snapped_, what else can I do to please you?_

Erik sat silently, waiting for Charles to relax back into the sofa.

"…One!" Moira said gleefully, her finger lowering on the capture button.

_So are we going to ignore the fact that we fucked last night?_ Erik asked.

As the shutter snapped, Charles choked, his eyes wide with shock. Feigning innocence, Erik turned with the rest of the group to stare at him. _If you insist on reading my mind, _friend_,_ he projected bitterly toward the sputtering telepath, _you must expect questions like that to be asked on occasion._

Panicking, Raven smacked her brother on the back, attempting to help him cough up whatever was blocking his throat.

"You OK there, professor?" Hank asked, craning his neck around to look at Charles, whose blush could now be described as fuchsia.

"Dude," Alex grumbled at the same time, "that's half the roll."

Moira inspected the plastic contraption in her hands as if seeing it for the first time. "He's right, this only takes twelve pictures. Why didn't you get a nicer camera?"

"I thought Raven said you were a millionaire or something," Angel pointed out. "Why are we using a Kodak Brownie?"

"44A!" Sean screeched.

Charles remained silent, trying to conceal his embarrassment.

"I'm sure it was the best we could get on such short notice," Erik covered, staring down the students until they nodded in agreement.

Moira sighed. "Why don't we take a break?" All the students groaned. Raven, however, gave Erik a pointed look before nodding toward her brother. Erik frowned. "A quick one," Moira added, tinkering with the camera "just stay in your places and talk amongst yourselves."

Erik shifted toward Charles, their foreheads almost touching. _Are we going to talk about it?_ he projected to the telepath.

Charles stared at his lap, refusing to make eye contact with Erik. _Now is not the time or place_, he stated, his projected voice obnoxiously calculated.

"Stop it," Hank growled from below them, trying to prevent Sean's attempt at licking his elbow.

_Fine, just answer me this, right here, right now,_ Erik thought, gazing at Charles intensely._ Was it for the sake of this stupid photo?_

Charles looked up, his expression colored with hurt, and Erik almost regretted asking. _My friend, I would never_.

"Knock it off," Darwin scolded, trying to prevent Sean's attempt at licking Angel.

Erik placed his hand firmly on Charles's knee. "Look at us. Look at them," he pressed. "Why exactly do we mean so much to you? Why do you want this picture so badly?_"_

With a sigh, Charles raised his hand to his forehead and looked Erik in the eyes. "I'm sorry," he said aloud before closing his eyes. Before he could protest, Erik found himself flooded with emotion, caught adrift in a flood of Charles's memories.

_Charles is nine, dressed entirely in black and staring off into the English countryside. Erik hears a voice calling for the boy – _mother_, Charles thought by way of explanation – and young Charles turns. Erik had suspected they were in a cemetery, but the sight of the crowd gathering around a headstone clearly marked XAVIER still surprises him. Sparing a glance for his father's casket, Charles walks trance-like back to his mother, who clutched him close to her chest._

"_He's in a better place," Mrs. Xavier said with a sob, "he's in a better place now, Charlie."_

_One memory of Mrs. Xavier blends into another, and Erik watches as Charles – not much older but certainly wiser – creeps into his father's study. Dust in collecting on certain shelves but many of the books have migrated to Mr. Xavier's desk, where his widow is now sleeping. Charles gently shakes his mother's shoulder, murmurs her name; when she doesn't wake, he wanders toward the formidable oak cabinet in the corner, the one his father stocked with his finest liquor. He frowns at his reflection before pulling open one of the doors with a creak._

"There should be more in there_," Erik hears young Charles think before glancing over his shoulder at his mother's prone form. Erik looks too, but instead of the wooden desk he sees a long narrow table made of metal. He blinks, and young Charles is sitting at one end of the table, alone with his metal lunchbox._

_Erik looks around, taking in the sight of the bleak, middle school cafeteria. Every student is male, all dressed in gray slacks, white shirts, and blue blazers. A particularly boxy boy passes behind Charles and shoves into him. The sound of Charles slamming into the table is lost in the already noise atmosphere, but Erik swears he can hear laughter coming from the boys at the other end of the table. His blood boils; Charles merely pushes his messy, chestnut hair out of his eyes and slams his lunch pail shut._

_The image of Charles seated alone on a couch at age 24 is threaded right into the previous memory. "You're my best friend," Charles says, looking up pleadingly. Erik thinks he's talking to him until, out of the corner of his eye, he spies Raven standing in the doorway._

"_I'm your only friend," she replies._

_Erik turns to find child Charles again, this time peeking his head out from under a large patchwork quilt stretched over two tall-backed chairs. Thunder rumbles in the distance, and he retreats. Noiselessly, Erik steps forward and kneels beside the fort, crouching to peer inside where Raven is crying._

"_Please, you can't let him find us," she begs Charles between sobs that wrack her tiny blue body._

_The boy shushes her. "I won't let him see you," he promises, "You're my best friend, Raven."_

Who are you talking about?_, Erik thinks quietly, trying not to break Charles's illusion._

Kurt Marko_, the telepath projected tersely. _My father's lab partner and my step-father.

_Raven sniffles, catching Erik's attention once more, and looks Charles in the eyes. "Can't you do something with your powers, convince him we're not here?"_

_Charles smiles sadly. "I'm afraid Mother would grow suspicious if I just stopped appearing after a while. Besides, I can't control my powers as well as you think. I've been practicing a lot, but I can't alter perceptions without alerting the people around me. At least not the people at school anyway…" he adds under his breath._

_A crack of lightning startles them both, eliciting a cry from Raven. Charles moves closer to her. "I won't let him hurt you, I promise." Erik smiles a bit – even at such a young age, Charles has a habit of trying to calm people in situations he can't control, of promising peace in the middle of a war. "He doesn't want anything to do with us, he just wants the money."_

"_What about Cain?" Raven challenges, her voice lower than the rumbling thunder. "When they move in…"_

_Her worrying is cut short by the sound of the front door slamming. Both Charles and Raven whip around, and Erik jumps up, putting himself between the children and the room's entrance._

_Instead of facing down danger, Erik finds himself alone in a darkened hallway. "Damn it, Charles," he says aloud, reaching around in the dark for a wall or table or some point of reference, "stop doing that."_

"_I am sorry," adult Charles's voice replies from the other side of the wall, "but you can't expect the thoughts of anyone, especially a telepath, to segue together nicely. Join us outside, won't you?"_

"_Maybe once I find the doorknob," Erik grouses, using his power to search for a handle. Sure enough, something turns with a click in the dark. He pulls and suddenly the room is flooded with light so brilliant Erik can barely see, but he trusts that Charles is out there waiting, so he steps forward._

_As his eyes adjust, all Erik can see is grass, impossibly green lawn for miles, and clear blue sky. He turns to see where he came from and is shocked to see a giant stone manor, the mansion of Charles's flashbacks though it doesn't seem nearly as somber._

"_Erik," Charles calls, grinning, "You made it." Erik walks over to where is friend is leaning against a low stone wall. In the distance he sees a satellite, a recent development on such an antiquated landscape._

"_A good memory," Erik says finally, noticing the new, peaceful aura. "If I may ask, when did this happen?"_

"_It hasn't yet," Charles replies, "but it will soon, hopefully."_

_A shout in the distant catches Erik's attention, and he joins Charles at the wall to look down on the front lawn._

_From the west, Hank comes darting across the grounds, a soccer ball flying in front of him. Alex and Darwin are on his heels, the cry of "no fair cheating!" coming from one of the muddied boys. With a manic grin, Hank spins the ball with one prehensile foot and sends it soaring around Raven into the goal zone. From the other end of the field, Angel whoops as Alex runs up to the sideline nearest Charles and Erik._

"_REF?" the young man calls, not up to the two men watching but to someone below them Erik can't see._

_Moira, dressed the part in black and white stripes, steps onto the field and studies both sides. "I'll allow it," they hear her concede after a moment's consideration, and Charles lets out a low laugh at Alex's exasperated groan._

_Erik can barely think, barely breathe. He stretches out a hand to rest on Charles's shoulder. All of it together is so terribly happy and wonderful and bright, almost as bright as the smile Charles is giving him._

"I'm not playing pretend," Charles admitted quietly under the children's chatter as he and Erik returned to reality. "I know it's insane, but I want this as my family."

Erik stared at him, speechless.

"OK, take seven," said Moira with renewed enthusiasm. "Is everybody ready?"

With a chorus of grumbled "yeses," the teen settled back into their places, oblivious to the pair still frozen on the couch.

"One," Moira began.

Erik continued to stare into Charles's blue eyes. He found the space between himself and his friend growing smaller and smaller.

"Two…"

"Fuck it," Erik said, grabbing Charles's face and crashing their lips together as the flash went off.


	6. Chapter 6

It had been nearly a week since the team had moved into Xavier's old Westchester mansion, nearly a week since Angel's departure and Darwin's demise. Erik had been out on the lawn, studying a distant satellite, when Charles bounded up to him, smelling like photography film solution, and waved a small piece of glossy paper in his face. "Quick, what is the first word that comes to mind when you look at this?"

Reluctantly, Erik took the photograph from him, holding it up to the light. "You developed this yourself?" he asked, and the telepath shrugged in response.

With a small smile, Erik recognized it was the last one they took. Moira hadn't even bothered counting down for them – after eleven ruined poses she declared she would "let the chips fall where they may" and taken a candid shot.

"It wasn't the best picture in the batch," Charles admitted, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "And it's certainly not the one I gave Moira for her supers. However, it was my favorite."

The first thing Erik's eyes are drawn to are (unfortunately) Hank's feet, though the young man actually looks OK and not seconds from a meltdown. With Hank's attention elsewhere, Sean had turned his interests to Alex, who he was in the process of pulling off the couch during the final photo. Erik had to chuckle at Alex's surprised expression, his eyes wide as saucers.

Raven had been caught shifting between shapes. As the only person still keeping track of the number of pictures left, she had been goofing off, knowing full well it was the last frame. Erik's eyes traced the streaks of her natural red mixed with the mostly blonde curls before he noticed the smattering of blue scales dotting her pink cheeks. Remembering her pre-picture dilemma, Erik wondered if she would be disappointed to see her visage captured between human and mutant before he noticed her unnaturally large smile – Erik had never seen her happier.

Hearing Charles's breath catch, Erik paused and followed his friend's gaze to the team's two now-missing members. From the waist up, Angel was brilliantly poised and smiling like a film starlet. Her right leg, however, was a blur – Angel's impatience with the picture-taking had manifested in her swinging her leg back and forth between takes. She was also, Erik recalled, seconds away from kicking Armando (who, despite his smile, had his eyes closed) in the head.

"Pandemonium." He looked up to see Charles grinning back at him. "What do you see?" Erik wondered, his voice edged with caution.

With one hand, Charles pulled Erik closer, bringing their forehead together over the photo. With his other hand, he pointed to the center of the portrait.

Much as they were now, Erik and Charles were leaning together, their foreheads touching. Erik could have sworn they had been looking at the camera, but in this photo they were in their own little world - Charles laughing, Erik smiling (_so many teeth_, he heard Charles think with a grin).

A pair of lips barely brushing against his brought Erik back to the present.

Charles smiled. "Perfection," he answered before once again meeting Erik's lips with his own.

**A/N**: Writing X-Men fan fiction is hard when the "X" falls off your laptop keyboard. Can anyone tell me why I now ship Alex/Hank? Actually, I now ship Alex with everyone. WTF?

Is this really the end? I don't know. It's what I had planned from the outset, and I'm happy with it, but I see a lot of reviewers wanted immediate reactions from the kids and Moira after the kiss, and I'm certainly not going to deny you guys seeing that once I do some more drafting. For the time being though, thanks to everyone for making this my most-viewed fan fiction! The amount of feedback has been so generous, I'm speechless.


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